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Harvey says 'Enough is Enough'

There was a moment, about three weeks ago, when Town Councilmember Skip Harvey had an epiphany.

“I woke up one night at 3 o’clock in the morning,” he said. “I was worrying about lawsuits and this and that and everything else. I said to myself, ‘You know, you don’t have to be doing this if you don’t want to.’”

Harvey, a two-term councilman and owner of the Base Camp Café, then created a political mystery earlier this when he filed for re-election, then withdrew his nomination papers less than a week before the deadline.

Since then he has been unusually mum on what led him to do that.

“I just thought eight years was enough,” he said in a brief interview before Wednesday’s Town Council meeting.

“I’m ready to get back to being Skip Harvey—a restaurant owner, and to have time to enjoy the things I enjoy doing.”

During his last four-year term, Harvey battled throat cancer—a fight he still endures.

Even so, he said he was encouraged by his medical treatments.

“I changed my mind,” he said. “It has nothing to do with my health. Enough was enough.

“Things are going to go the direction they’re going to go,” he said, “whether I’m on council or not.”

He said he might have more to say about withdrawing from the race after the new council is seated in June.

Harvey still maintained his sense of humor.

When asked if he was surprised that only one non-incumbent citizen (Michael Raimondo) filed nomination papers for the two open seats, Harvey quipped.

“I think you’d be foolish to run for office right now (laughing). “I guess I was a little bit surprised, but not really.”